Chloe really loved meeting her Great Grandparents, Richard and Betty. Richard gets up every day at 5:30 AM and goes for a walk. Immediately following his walk Betty serves him breakfast, and then he takes a nap. By 8:00 AM, Richard never fails to meet his sons at the barn to start work.
Lunchtime every day is at noon. For lunch, Richard eats a hearty and healthy meal and always washes it down with a packet of Metamucil mixed into canned peach syrup (Home-canned). He "eats it all up" with a spoon. Zach just interjected snappingly "He probably uses Fibercon by now. Nobody uses Metamucil. Fibercon is less detectable, mixes into everything, ... TASTES better." Zach is weirdly passionate all of a sudden about Fiber suppliments.
Betty, his wife, lovingly makes tater tot casserole "not as often as she used to because Richard had a heart attack a few years ago." Zach says. "She makes it REALLY GOOD. The bottom of the pan has a real thick compact layer of burger- like it's cooked in the pan and so it conforms to the pan." Every time Betty makes this casserole, she adorns the table with the old trusty tomato shaped catsup bottle.
My favorite memory with Richard is last Christmas when he was seen playing 'Bop-It.' Zach's favorite memory is from when he was helping "set out pipe" and 12:00 rolled around. Richard got a little excited and said "It's Bean time!!"
Richard is a World War II veteran, along with all of his brothers. He helps run the family farm, which includes an 'original homestead.' Gary, Zach's step dad (Richards son), told us a story about how they had an outhouse until he was 7. As Gary is only 51 years old, this truly is interesting. These people are an encyclopedia of knowledge that I don't think I could aquire anywhere else.
Also, I got to DRIVE the combine this weekend. Yup, that's right. I DROVE it. Gary taught me to drive this $180,000 piece of equipment. I felt like I was driving a house, or a transformer, or something.
The combine is driven down the rows of corn and cuts several rows of corn at once (Gary's combine cuts 6 at a time). The stalks are pulled through and all the cobs come bouncing off and get sucked (completely shucked) into the machine. Inside the machine, the corn is stripped from the cob, and collected in a bin. While driving, I had to wait for another guy in a tractor pulling another bin. When the bin is where it is supposed to be, and level with the auger (which I had to extend), you pull a lever and the corn shoots into the other guys bin. Anyways, I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out, my eyes were open so wide. I was terrified I would steer the thing off course and crush the 'profits', or worse, lower the 'snoots' too low and crash the whole thing in the dirt. I think it was one of the coolest moments of my life. After that, I drove the other tractor with the other bin (but we stopped to unload the corn. I didn't dare do it driving).
Here is one with Chloe and Grandpa Gary. We just love Grandpa Gary! He is one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever known, and such a funny entertaining person. He really loves his grandchildren and is making them all "secret passageways" all over the house they are building.
